Of Our Spiritual Strivings/ The Problem of the 20th Century
W. E. B. Du Bois begins his essay Of Our Spiritual Strivings with a question “what does it feel like to be a problem?” Du Bois is referring to the everyday struggles of African Americans during slavery and in the years following. African Americans were treated as property not people and because of this struggle Du Bois says that American negroes learned to adapt a double consciousness. The African Americans in early United States history were essentially two different people, an American, and a Negro. They learned to look at theirs elves through the eyes of others and they were constantly battling with the conflicting views of Americans and Africans. For the negro has much to teach the American and the American has much to teach the negro. One of the main differences between African Americans and whites was that whites did worship freedom they way that African Americans did. Du bois said that slavery was the “ sum of all villainies, the cause of all sorrow, the root of prejudice.” The white man could not respect freedom the way that a negro could because he never had to strive for it. Emancipation was the only aspiration that a black man could have and even after it happened segregation and racism flourished throughout the states. Negroes had to attempt to compete in a white dominated culture with little to no resources. The striving for freedom even after emancipation is what fueled the African American spirit.

The next passage by W. E. B. Du Bois was entitled The problem of the 20th century is the problem of the color line which explains some of the main struggles for African Americans after emancipation. Du Bois says that there are 7 different problems that they faced when trying to assimilate into a dominantly white culture. The first was education, in 1901 only one third of African American children were attending school. This was breeding a ignorance amongst the negroes, without education they could not obtain work or literacy and would not be able to compete with whites. The next problem that Du bois wanted addressed was civil rights and voting privileges. Negroes did not stand a chance in the judicial system and had no way to sway politicians views because they had no right to vote. Another problem was that African Americans were not paid equally and therefore could not work for a modern standard of living. They were also desperate for freedom of press so that they could establish a paper that would help them express their concerns to members of society. They also wanted equal housing oppurtunites that were free of segregation and lastly they wanted overall social equality. He says that this is the main problem of the 20th century. Even today there are still social inequalities that exist for people of color and these social problems stem from the idea that there really is a difference between black and white people. Racism is a social creation that exists because we let it exist.

Du bois says that these problems have begun to fade because of modern democracy because it forces people of different backgrounds to come together on political issues, but there are still indifferences in integration. He says that we must turn the idea of individual profits into welfare of the mass citizen and that that is the only way we can save the world.